By Claire Troughton, Mar 28 2017 10:12AM

I'm a little late writing about these rings, but I was reminded to post when a lady commented how lovely the ring I had made for her friend Jo is. I didn't know the 2 ladies in question were friends, but it's a small world.

Jo had seen my 'Shimmering Ripples' 18ct yellow gold and diamond ring on the website and loved it, but wanted something a little less irregular, plus she wanted to re-use the gold from some old rings.

Jo decided she would like the 2 outer circles of each ripple to be rose gold from her old rings and the inner one would be white gold. This meant melting the old rings and re-forming into wire. Then 8 large circles of rose gold had to be made, plus 8 medium circles of rose gold and 8 small circles of white gold, each one having a solder join to close it together. One of each of the different sized circles then had to be soldered inside each other to produce the individual ripples, then these were soldered into a line. Finally this row of ripples could then be formed into a ring and soldered together. All in all a lot of soldering with 41 different joins and each time the metal is heated up to complete a new solder join there is a chance the solder will flow out of any of the other joins and re-open them. Thankfully all went to plan and both Jo and I were delighted with the result.

Bespoke handmade rose and white gold ripple wedding ring

Ewan had his own ideas for a bespoke wedding ring. He came armed with an intricate rope armband and wanted the same pattern on his white gold wedding ring.

Rope pattern gents wedding ring

I decided the best way to do this was to create an image which could be laser engraved onto the ring. The pattern was cut into the ring, leaving the rope design as a recess and blackened inside to emphasise.

By Claire Troughton, Nov 5 2016 04:36PM

This stunning wedding ring was made for a customer who had a couple of old-fashioned diamond rings that she didn't want to wear anymore. It was a shame to leave them lying in a drawer, so she commissioned a ring to incorporate all the diamonds into one contemporary wedding ring. The customer wanted a mix of yellow and white gold and so we chose to make the centre band in yellow gold incorporating a white gold setting and the outer 2 bands in white gold with yellow gold settings. This mix of metals meant the ring had to be entirely handmade, rather than constructing in silver and casting in one piece or using CAD. In total the ring had 17 solder joints, which lead to some pretty nervous moments. Firstly each band was made and soldered, then the 3 bands were soldered to each other, then I had to work out where each setting would sit and cut a piece out of the band exactly the right size to drop the setting into. Each setting then had to be soldered in place to join it at each side to the wire band. Soldering is achieved by heating the entire ring with a gas flame until the solder and metal to be joined are at the right temperature to let the solder flow into the gap between the two items, bonding them in place when cooled. Soldering so many joins so closely together meant there wasa risk each time the ring was heated that the other joins would also heat up and cause the settings to move or even worse melt! Thankfully all went to plan and the diamonds just look so stunning in their new home. The ring is approximately 9mm wide and can't fail to catch the eye - a real sparkler!